In the ubiquitous world of watches, where anyone can call themselves a designer, Hajime Asaoka stands above the rest.

There are far too many watch brands in existence, which ABlogToWatch recently discussed, and we wholeheartedly agree with that article. Nevertheless, each year, there are endless newcomer brands who feel watchmaking is the right path for them.

Even if you went to design or art school, designing a watch is not something that tends to work well for the uninitiated. To be good at it, you need far more training and experience than design school alone. The watch market is flooded with too many brands, too many models, and too much inventory, making it a hyper competitive space, within a market where nobody needs the product. Not to mention, most of the revenue is generated by a limited number of top brands, which are well entrenched, and nearly impossible to compete with.

Hajime Asaoka, owner of sub brand Kurono Tokyo, who has an art school background, and is a watchmaker, is an outlier in the watch world, who continues to create uniquely appealing timepieces, that aesthetically rival designs from the best watch brands in the world.

At 37 mm x 11.5 mm, in a stainless steel case, with an authentic gray Muonionalusta meteorite dial hand picked by Aasoka, surrounded by a white lacquered ring that’s trimmed in metal, punctuated with Calligra typeface painted in high relief (a font created by Aasoka), with distinctive hand-bent high-polished steel hands (also a Aasoka design), the Kurono Inseki 隕石, is yet another example, of how good watch design reins supreme over almost all else.

The Kurono Inseki is powered by a svelte 3.9 mm Miyota 90S5, which is an automatic, 24-jewel, 4Hz outsourced caliber with a 40-hour power reserve.

For a retail of $1,850, this is an attractive timepiece from a respected watchmaker and designer, and I’d argue that you’d be hard pressed to find anything close in these terms, even from an established brand, without doubling or tripling your investment. That’s the power of good design.

 

Photos by Kurono Tokyo.